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Roman Polak wishes refs and concussion spotters saw game the same way

Spotters can’t take the game situation into consideration if a head-injury protocol is going to be credible.

Leafs defenceman Roman Polak was not impressed the on-ice officials missed a hit which the NHL concussion spotters not only saw, but thought could have caused a head injury against the Avalanche on Dec. 22. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

In the moments after Roman Polak’s head was forcefully bashed into the glass on a hit from behind by Colorado’s Joe Colborne, Polak fell to his knees to gather himself.

Clearly shaken up on the play in a game in Denver late last week, it took Polak a long pause to eventually find his feet and return to the Toronto bench. When he got there, he was soon informed that he wouldn’t be going back on the ice for a while. Instead, he was being called to the dressing room to be examined for the symptoms of a concussion. Polak, speaking after the game, did not sound pleased.

“It is frustrating. They have a spotter who’s going to call me in to check for symptoms. So clearly that means it’s a hit in the head. But there wasn’t a penalty for it,” Polak said. “That’s a weird situation. If they don’t call me in — OK, I guess it was a good play or something. It was a good hit. Whatever. But if you get called in and there’s no penalty, it makes you wonder. It has to be one or the other. That’s why I was frustrated.”

Polak isn’t the first player to complain about the finer points of the NHL’s “enhanced” concussion protocol, which includes spotters both in the arena and watching on TV from NHL headquarters with the power to remove players from games. Earlier this month Edmonton’s Connor McDavid expressed displeasure after being pulled from a game against Minnesota for the final 6:28 of the second period after a trip sent him sprawled chin-first on the ice.

“It happened at an important time of the game and it could happen at even worse times,” McDavid told reporters. “You know, what if it’s overtime or it’s a playoff push or it’s late in the third period and stuff like that — I think they definitely have to take that into consideration.”

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The truth is, of course, that spotters can’t take the game situation into consideration, not if a head-injury protocol is going to maintain any semblance of credibility. And while Polak’s qualms were understandable — and while Leafs coach Mike Babcock argued the non-call loudly enough to incur a bench minor that put the Maple Leafs at a 5-on-3 disadvantage in the 6-0 win over the Avalanche — his one-or-the-other logic didn’t hold water. The job of the spotters, newly deployed this season in a move that some players have connected to the ongoing concussion-related lawsuits hovering over the sport, isn’t to simply scrutinize the effects of penalized hits to the head. It’s to have an eye for the signs of any potential brain injury, penalized or not.

“Rules are rules. I’ve had what happened to (Polak) happen to me, too,” said Morgan Rielly, the Maple Leafs defenceman. “I think if you make any gesture toward holding your head or wincing your eyes, it’s pretty automatic that you’re going to get called in whether there’s a penalty or not. The trainers (who inform players they’ve been called in for examination) get a hard time sometimes from the guys and the coaches. But those are the rules. We’re lucky we have a great training staff.”

Said Matt Hunwick, Polak’s defence partner: “That’s what the spotters are there for, to catch everything. They have that whole rink perspective. And sometimes the referees don’t see it the same way, unfortunately.”

As the Maple Leafs relaxed during a holiday break that won’t see them back on the ice until Wednesday, when they begin a Florida-Tampa road trip with a game against the Panthers, they could be excused for choosing to see their big-picture situation in a hopeful light. The two-game road trip that capped their pre-Christmas schedule saw them bust out of a December scoring slump by racking up a combined 10 goals in victories against the Avalanche and Coyotes, their first four-point back-to-back of the campaign. Last season they scored 2.34 goals per game, third-last in the league. This year’s per-game average of 2.94 puts them as the seventh-most potent offence among the NHL’s 30 teams.

A year ago on Christmas, the Leafs were only a couple of points removed from the league’s basement, their season-ending destination. This year, after winning three of their four most recent games, they’re 10 points clear of 30th place and by many indications headed in a different direction. With 49 games left on the schedule, the Leafs sit just five points back of Boston with three games in hand for the final Atlantic Division playoff spot.

Festive times, indeed, although last week Polak found reason to rail against the unseen Grinch who required him to retire to the dressing room for, by Polak’s estimation, an examination that took “about 20 minutes.”

Polak, as it turned out, said he was only allowed to return to the game after passing a baseline concussion test — an electronic exam that measures various cognitive markers against a player’s results on the same test taken in training camp. Speaking after the game, Polak said he felt “great.”

“I think it was a dirty hit. But it’s not my call. It’s the referee’s call,” Polak said. “I’m not saying (concussion protocol is) a bad idea. I think it’s a good idea, trying to protect the players. If you get hit in the head, you might feel good for a bit. And two minutes later, you might feel s-----. It’s smart. But if they call you in, it has to be called on the ice. It doesn’t make sense if it’s not.”

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